Research brief: High mortality in non-compliant patients

Patients who stop antiplatelet drugs within 30 days of receiving a drug-eluting stent are nine times more likely to die within a year than those who take their medication. A US study of 500 MI patients discharged with a prescription for thienopyridines after stent insertion found that 13.6 per cent stopped their medication within 30 days. After one year, 7.5 per cent of patients who stopped their medication had died, compared to 0.7 per cent of the patients who took the medication (http://circ.ahajournals.org).